ENGLAND go on safari today. Fabio Capello would be better advised to concentrate on the Three Lions already under his supervision rather than spending an afternoon trying to spot them in the wild.

Capello makes it plain what he wants from his England players going on for the second half []

Five days before their World Cup opener against the USA and England need time on the training pitch, not roaming

around the Pilanesburg game reserve near Sun City.

This practice match was abject and hugely worrying. “I know it’s a friendly and for charity,” Capello told his

players before stomping out of the dressing room angrily, “but it is also a football match and you had better start

treating it as one.”

The positives can be confined to the fact that there were no more injuries and three well-taken goals to douse

the spirit of the Platinum Stars, who had been recalled from their holidays to play at the Moruleng Stadium.

But along with goals for Jermain Defoe, Joe Cole and Wayne Rooney came three bookings, including one for

Rooney who offered a brief reminder of the bad old days when his temper forever threatened to be his undoing.

England have lacked aggression in recent insipid performances, but Rooney’s attempts to inject some bordered on sheer stupidity.

He had already clashed with Kagiso Senamela but continued to work himself into a frenzy until referee Jeff

Selogilwe cautioned him. Capello must have a quiet word with his talisman before the USA try to wind him up, although even Capello had trouble in keeping his feelings in check yesterday.

He was ticked off by thefourth official during thefirst half for encroaching fromhis technical area, a spat

comically defused by thegeneral manager of the Stars though it was not nearly assevere as the ear-bashing he gave his players.

The blueprint that Capello wants his team to adhere to isclear. It demands pressing opponents high up the pitch in

unison and with intensity. It calls for the goalkeeper to look to distribute the ball from the back rather than punt aimless long balls forward and it calls on his striker to hold the ball up and bring others into play.

England did none of those things. By accident almost, Capello will now know nine, maybe 10, of his starting lineup

for Saturday’s Group C clash with the goalkeeping issue joined by a debate over who should play at right-back.

That he should find out in circumstances so error-riddenclearly did not amuse him. Capello was a non-stop

sideshow of arm waving and grimacing on the touchline and spent just five minutes in the dressing room with his players before re-emerging and plonking himself on the edge of the England bench after the break, 13 empty seats

away from anyone else. David James did not feature, given concerns over his fi tness and it was revealing to see Capello fix Joe Hart with a withering stare on three occasions in the opening 45 minutes when he hurriedly pumped the ball up field.

Robert Green looked more assured in the second half and would appear to hold the aces as well as the gloves.

Hart has still to concede a goal for England, though that was more down to good fortune with Bradley Grobler’s chance of glory ending with a penalty blazed over the bar moments after Defoe had opened the scoring in the third minute following skipper Steven Gerrard’s cut back. Given that Ledley King will not train again until Friday, the back

four of Glen Johnson, King, John Terry and Ashley Cole is presumably the rearguard Capello has in mind for Rustenburg.

King and Terry looked capable enough on their fi rst outing together in exactly

three years, but Johnson’s hopes of keeping his place ahead of Liverpool team-mate Jamie Carragher are becoming shakier with every audition.

The decision to penalise him for the spot-kick as Muzi Mashaba went down under a

challenge was harsh, but there is a carelessness in his displays. Carragher is less adventurous but less of a risk. He is a leader and there were precious few others making themselves heard above the incessant

wailing of the vuvuzelas from an enthusiastic crowd.

Otherwise, Gerrard and Frank Lampard will start at the base of England’s midfi eld in the absence of Gareth Barry.

The front four is likely to be those who started the second half, Aaron Lennon, Rooney, Emile Heskey and Joe Cole,

who was the only player who played 90 minutes and should bag the role on the left despite James Milner’s clever cameo.

Rooney showed in setting up Cole and expertly fi nishing off Milner’s cross where his talent is best served. England must pray his old habits do not resurface again because without the striker in their midst, they may as well be